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A
Special Place In Hell
-- Posted by The_Duke on Thursday, November 25 2004
Being busy is a choice. When you hear someone say, "Damn,
this has been a busy week," it's not like having
a busy schedule is just thrust upon them. You know -
free will and all that good stuff. We always have the
option to just say "No" and deal with the
consequences that follow. That's the beauty with freedom.
We can do and be whoever we choose, but always looming
close by are those damn consequences if we don't choose
wisely. So to catch you beautiful people up on all things
Duke, "Damn, this has been a busy week!"
First on
my plate, was working on a project that I had mentioned
in a previous Duke Views featuring Allison Irby, a female
R&B vocalist from Atlanta. We'll call it the "Allison
Project" for now because, at this moment, it doesn't
have an official title. Here is a quick background on
the project.
About five
months ago, Duke manager Mark Willis told me about a
young female R&B singer from Atlanta that had the
goods. A great voice, great look and the right personality
for the business. Her dilemma is that she's not completely
thrilled with the direction of today’s pop and
R&B scene. Although this is the musical direction
that she has been pursuing since she started singing,
she is more drawn towards being a rock singer.
After Allison
and her manager heard the Duke demos, they spoke to
Mark about having me write some songs for her. After
an informal meeting with all parties present, the decision
was made to move forward with a partnership and the
recording of a demo would be the first step. With all
of my song writing currently focused on my solo record,
I decided to rework a couple of Sick Speed tracks that
I knew she would sound great on. The songs we chose
to record were "Time and a Place" and "Can't
See Straight."
Those of
you who are familiar with the original Sick Speed demo
of Can't See Straight know that I did rap vocals for
the verses and the original Sick Speed singer, Eddie,
tracked the melodic vocals. After spending some time
listening to the vocals that Allison had tracked, I
decided that my "aggro" rap style seemed out
of place next to her smooth and laid back style. That's
when one of my rare moments of genius hit me. Call Bonz!
As you know,
Bonz and I have had a few phone conversations regarding
the new Mojo record. But we haven't worked together
in the studio since 1999 and haven't written together
since 1997. I knew that we both still had some issues
that needed resolving, so I thought this would be the
perfect place to collaborate again. Being in a neutral
place would give Bonz and I a great opportunity to work
together again and to iron out any wrinkles before we
start on the Mojo record.
After explaining
the project in a brief phone conversation, Bonz and
I both felt hesitantly excited about the prospect of
working together again after all these years. He arrived
at the studio and, after some pleasantries, we got right
to work. I gave him a CD of the riff he was to work
on and, after a few minutes of jotting down lyrics while
listening to the track, he proceeded to lay down one
of the best vocal performance that I have ever heard
him deliver!
I have to
say that my previous experiences of working with Bonz
in the studio have almost always been unpleasant overall.
But this time was much different. He came down with
a great attitude and with his game face on. Shawn Grove
was engineering the session and the studio's owner,
Chaney Brannon, (both long time friends) commented that
it was awesome to be in the room to see Bonz and I working
together again. All parties involved were "feeling
it." So let's hope that this a sign of what's to
come. Needless to say, my enthusiasm towards writing
and recording a new Mojo record with Bonz are ten times
what they were two weeks ago.
The other
part of this week’s adventure was the filming
of Fozzy's music video for the song “Enemy.”
The concept of the video was written by British film
maker Paul Hough, who also directed the video. I have
to give it up for Paul. He has the perfect demented
writing style to put him on the map of horror movie
royalty. There are a lot of cool shots and plot devices
used in the video but, in the interest of time, I won't
detail all of them. Here's the Reader’s Digest
version of the story.
Guy with
one leg crawls up multiple flights of stairs, catches
his wife in the stairwell with another dude, keeps climbing
until he gets on the roof where the band is playing
and crawls over to the edge. He looks over and then
throws himself off to his death. It's the feel good
story of the year. Trust me, I fought hard to keep the
handicapped from killing themselves in my video. In
the end they did agree to film two different endings
to appease me, but we all know what's going to happen.
Phone rigs, "Hey Rich, MTV loves the amputee suicide
ending, so we're gonna go with that one."
How a band
can go from wearing spandex and wigs to killing off
the handicapped in two short years makes me wonder if
there is hope for humanity. I am well aware of the fact
that there is a special place in hell for those of us
who f@#k with the handicapped. I only hope that when
I leave this Earth, that there is a Post-It note at
the Pearly Gates reminding interested parties that I
thought it was a bad idea.
On the upside,
the video is going to be a work of art and filming it
was mucho (that's Spanish) fun. All the scenes involving
the band were shot on the roof of a building in downtown
San Diego. Those of you who have never been to San Diego
should drop what you're doing and go NOW! It is one
of the most beautiful cities in the world and even the
ridiculous cost of living is well worth it; even if
just for the weather. So, obviously, hanging out all
day on top of a skyscraper, overlooking the ocean in
the beautiful southern California sunshine made a great
day even better. In addition, the cast and crew were
complete professionals and a pleasure to work with making
it one of the best video/film shoots that I have ever
been a part of.
The guy who
played the role of the amputee was a native New Yorker
named Eddie McGee who had already acquired some notoriety
having been the first season winner of the reality show
“Big Brother.” I've never met anyone quite
like Eddie. He had a way about him that made you feel
honored to be in his presence. The nicest of the nice,
the coolest of the cool and he had the kind of charisma
and talent that should make him a sure fire success
in Hollywood. Earlier in this commentary, I referred
to the character that he played in the video as being
"handicapped." In real life Eddie is the furthest
thing from being handicapped. For example, between takes
on the set, he would hop over a four foot wall like
it was nothing. Pretty much everyone was in awe of this
dude by the end of the day. The general opinion was
that he may only have one leg, but he has eight balls!
Eddie was
a pro in every respect and willing to do whatever was
asked of him, even when it truly freaked most of the
rest of us out! For example, he had to do several takes
where he would pull himself across the gravel roof of
this 10-story building, crawl right up to the edge,
pause, and then hop up on his leg only inches away from
the edge! That move, by the way, made many of us almost
nauseous because of the danger. It was genuinely frightening.
In a straight up bar fight, I'd have my money on him
over just about anyone. I'll be looking for Eddie and
Paul to do big things in the future.
As for straight
up band camaraderie, this trip was off the charts. As
if the presence of the usual suspects in the Fozzy camp
weren't enough to complete the male bonding, the king
of all multimedia, Ed Aborn, was on board to document
the shoot for a future DVD as well as Mike Martin, our
new band-mate and shred mechanic. Throw in a few good
meals, meeting the guitar player for REO Speedwagon
and an afternoon throwing around some iron at Golds
Gym in Venice Beach and you've got an experience for
the record books.
Pray
for me!
The
Duke
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